5000 Black Edition + 8800gt

[wildben]

I have a X2 5000 Black Edition that I have bumped up to 2.8 Ghz. I am getting ready to upgrade my 7900gt to an 8800gt for the newer games. I have a 19" widescreen lcd that runs at 1440x900. I have 2GB of DDR2 800Mhz ram.

So, is my X2 5000 BE at 2.8Ghz a good match for an 8800gt? Is my CPU a bottleneck to this video card? I'm trying to get a video card that will be more or less evenly matched to my CPU so that neither have any processing power lost due to the other. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Emperor36]

wildben, you're on money my friend I have the same spec as you do.

AMD 5000+ BE @ 3.0ghz
8800gt @ 650mhz/1675mhzShader/950mhzMem
with Akimbo cooler.

Does not bottleneck at all, I play COD 4 @ 1680*1050 all on high, no AA. I'm getting 70+ frames easy.

Did alittle tweaking though, go to www.tweakguides.com and download the tweakguide companian for xp or vista.

helped alot. Good luck.

 

[IH8U]

Better tho, set th multiplier in the BIOS to 13.5 (mine is set to this), and the freq to 230 (3.1) I'm using an 8800GTS 512 however. (better cooling)

 

[wildben]

wildben, you're on money my friend I have the same spec as you do.

AMD 5000+ BE @ 3.0ghz
8800gt @ 650mhz/1675mhzShader/950mhzMem
with Akimbo cooler.

Does not bottleneck at all, I play COD 4 @ 1680*1050 all on high, no AA. I'm getting 70+ frames easy.

Did alittle tweaking though, go to www.tweakguides.com and download the tweakguide companian for xp or vista.

helped alot. Good luck.

Awesome, good to hear it. I had thought about a 9600gt because it's a little slower - I didn't want to pay the extra for the 8800gt if I wouldn't see any difference due to the CPU being too slow. But I'll go ahead with the 8800gt anyway.

 

[zenmaster]

I don't think your CPU will be too slow.

 

[englandr753]

Awesome matchup IMO. Go for it...

 

[EXT64]

Your CPU is plenty. @IH8U, does setting your multi to a half multi underclock your ram? It did on my FX-60, so I had to pull back to 14 (it had something to do with rounding the ram down, I don't remember exactly).

 

[chedrz]

I have a X2 5000 Black Edition that I have bumped up to 2.8 Ghz. I am getting ready to upgrade my 7900gt to an 8800gt for the newer games. I have a 19" widescreen lcd that runs at 1440x900. I have 2GB of DDR2 800Mhz ram.

So, is my X2 5000 BE at 2.8Ghz a good match for an 8800gt? Is my CPU a bottleneck to this video card? I'm trying to get a video card that will be more or less evenly matched to my CPU so that neither have any processing power lost due to the other. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

You're probably going to see a huge performance increase. I had a 7900GT in my computer with a 4200+, and when I upgraded to an 8800GT, I was blown away performance-wise. I wouldn't have dreamed of seeing the jump I saw. Now I'm getting a 5000+ Black Ed. in a few days, and I'm hoping to see another nice little jump in performance, just in a slightly different area.

 

[IH8U]

To EXT64, short answer, no. My RAM is set at 960 for now (can go higher, much higher)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231065
at $150 it's expensive, but can be pushed beyond 1066 (gotta love a Lifetime warranty)

 

[wildben]

Really what I was thinking about was games like Oblivion and Crysis that load both GPU and CPU heavily. I wanted to get a graphics card that would roughly match FPS of the X2 5000 in those games so that I wouldn't have wasted speed (and wasted money). I can't seem to find a CPU/GPU scaling chart anywhere for the newer games. If anyone can provide a link it would be extremely helpful.

 

[jerseygamer]

Go with the 3870 512 over the GT. The 8800GT is a very hot card, no dx10.1 support and a bad OCer compared to the 3870. You will forever have horrible dx10 performance with the GT.

 

[epsilon84]

Really what I was thinking about was games like Oblivion and Crysis that load both GPU and CPU heavily. I wanted to get a graphics card that would roughly match FPS of the X2 5000 in those games so that I wouldn't have wasted speed (and wasted money). I can't seem to find a CPU/GPU scaling chart anywhere for the newer games. If anyone can provide a link it would be extremely helpful.

Actually, despite popular opinion, I believe at 1440 x 900 a 2.8GHz X2 could be a bottleneck in certain games, especially RTS titles, flight sims and some online FPS shooters (like BF2/2142, CS:S or TF2). Regardless, it will still be a massive improvement over your 7900GT, like two or three fold in most games.

Crysis CPU scaling:
http://uk.gamespot.com/features/6182806/p-6.html (An X2 @ 2.8GHz is roughly equivalent to the FX-60 @ 2.6GHz.)

Oblivion CPU scaling:
http://uk.gamespot.com/features/6147127/p-7.html

In Crysis, playing at high res and details, the CPU speed makes little difference as the GPU is the limiting factor, but at lower res and details CPU speed becomes more important.

It appears CPU speed is even more important in Oblivion, it clearly scales well across all resolutions with a faster CPU.

Gamespot has heaps of other game specific hardware performance guides as well, so if you're curious about how you stack up in other games you can check it out here:
http://uk.gamespot.com/hardware.html?type=hardware&category=Performance+Guide&dlx_type=all&sortdir=asc

 

[epsilon84]

Go with the 3870 512 over the GT. The 8800GT is a very hot card, no dx10.1 support and a bad OCer compared to the 3870. You will forever have horrible dx10 performance with the GT.

Total BS.

Under load the 8800GT runs cooler than a 3870, its 10 - 20% quicker and overclocks just as well, if not better, than the 3870. DX10 performance is also better than the 3870, DX 10.1 support is a non issue as there isn't a single game out that uses it.

 

[wildben]

Total BS.

Under load the 8800GT runs cooler than a 3870, its 10 - 20% quicker and overclocks just as well, if not better, than the 3870. DX10 performance is also better than the 3870, DX 10.1 support is a non issue as there isn't a single game out that uses it.

Yeah, the 8800gt looks to be a bit quicker in all benchmarks that I've seen. The stock fan is a problem for it though - it does run very hot. But I was looking at the MSI NX8800GT at newegg that has a much better cooling solution already mounted on it, and it's overclocked as well. That one has good reviews and everyone says it runs very cool.

 

[wildben]

Actually, after doing a little more research, the MSI 9600GT looks like it may be a better match for my CPU. It is already stock overclocked and comes with a much better GPU cooler than stock.

Anyone have any thoughts on this MSI 9600gt vs MSI 8800gt as to which one would be a better match for my X2 5000 @ 2.8, with 1440X900 resolution?

By the way, I'm looking at MSI because they have much better coolers than the other brands, are overclocked, and cheaper than other brands... MSI seems to have good reviews as well.

 

[quanger]

I would stick with 8800gt instead of the 9600gt. the 8800gt just has more raw power. it is also quicker if you choose to sli in the future.

 

[bfellow]

Go with the 8800GT. In fact, learn from me a 3870 512 user!

 

[KyleSTL]

no dx10.1 support

MOOT!! Who cares? Name one game that supports it currently. Or a soon-to-be-released game that's rumored to support it.
...
Ok, that's what I thought.